Arbitrage Spreads

With the recent market turmoil, some of the pending transactions have great arbitrage spreads. The names that are big and liquid are fine, with respect to their bid-ask spreads like TRB, SLM, TXU etc.

But small cap stocks, like CMPP(40%), BYBI(86%), SMXC(90%), have really wide bid ask spreads. I was just wondering if its always like this, or it can your broker get you a better price? or any other way you can get a better price?

What is the general opinion of the board, on the large pending transactions, which if closed provide very juicy spreads. What names are you guys playing?